Papers belonging to Josh Powell found at Washington recycling center

View full sizeAP PhotoIn a Sept. 28, 2011 file photo, Josh Powell, the husband of missing Utah woman Susan Powell, listens during a court hearing regarding the custody of his two sons, in Tacoma, Wash.

GRAHAM, Wash. (AP) -- A search at a recycling center recovered some papers, books and a map of Utah that Josh Powell dropped off the day before he killed his two young sons and himself in an explosive fire, the Pierce County sheriff's office said.

Volunteers who combed through more than 10 tons of paper over the weekend found what the sheriff's office called a "testament" with Powell's name on it, some paperback books with his wife's name on them and the Utah map. The office did not elaborate on what the testament contains.

"We'll take what we have and analyze it and determine if it has evidentiary value or if it leads us to another location," Sgt. Ed Troyer told KIRO-FM on Monday.

Investigators also are testing a bloodstained comforter that was found last week in a storage unit Powell had rented.

Authorities are still looking for the body of Susan Powell, who disappeared in December 2009 in Utah. Josh Powell was a person of interest, and Pierce County prosecutor in Washington state consider the killing of his children and himself an admission of guilt in her death.

Powell slammed his door in the face of a social worker Feb. 5, seized his sons, Charlie and Braden, hit them with a hatchet and set fire to his gasoline-soaked home in Graham in a blast that rocked the neighborhood.

More than a thousand people mourned the deaths of Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, at a public funeral Saturday in Tacoma.

Josh Powell had said that on the night Susan Powell vanished, he took the boys from their home in West Valley City, Utah, on a late-night camping trip. Authorities who have searched the central Utah desert for Susan Powell's body have found nothing.

After his wife's disappearance, Powell moved back to Washington into his father's home with the boys.

Last September, authorities got a warrant to search Steve Powell's home. Authorities found explicit images on his computers during the search, and Steve Powell was jailed on voyeurism and child porn charges.

Josh Powell lost custody of the boys, who were sent to live with Susan Powell's parents. They were on a supervised custody visit when they were killed.